WMP 10, Tivo 2.3a, codecs nightmare

[guruweaver]

Hey all,

I'm hoping y'all can help me straighten out this mess.

I've been watching shows on TiVo2Go on my laptop for some time. Recently, I did the upgrade to Windows Media Player 10 and TiVo Desktop 2.3a.

For some time, I've been struggling with problems with the playback that I think (from reading this forum) are codec related.

Firstly, I was having poor aspect ratios (squashed video) which I corrected by purchasing TiVo Desktop 2.3a Plus. All good there.

I'm still, however, having recurring problems with Fast Forward, Rewind, and skip.

My FF and RW buttons are non-functional in media player.

Further, often (though not every time) if I click in the progress bar or drag the slider to jump around in the show, the show appears to hang (no audio, video stays on the most recent frame prior to using the slider). Sometimes, it will fix itself after some minutes. Other times it's just a no-go. Oddly, the show appears to be playing in the background, just not updating the screen or audio. The progress timer and bar both continue to increment. Further, when it 'fixes' itself, the point in the show that is displayed is consistent with the current posistion of the slider, not the position I dropped it at.

I've seen hints and comments that lead me to believe that I either have bad codecs (which I thought were fixed by buying the Plus version) or some bad mojo in the DirectShow Filter.

I mucked around in the filter some (using the DirectShow Filter Manager from softella) to no avail. I just want the darn thing to work like it used to.

Can anyone offer some advice on how to proceed? Perhaps a codec/direct show master would be willing to swap e-mails on it? One of the options I don't like and will resist is the 'rebuild laptop' to fix it. I fear not registry diving and such.

I've tried rolling back media player to 9 and un/reinstalling TiVo Desktop to no avail.

As long as I don't touch the slider, it plays back fine. It blows not being able to rewind to miss a portion of dialog or jump to a specific scene.

Thanks,
Mike

[Dan203]

Unfortunately the FF/RW problem is a biproduct of DirectShow. It's complex to explain but basically DirectShow works by linking various filters, written as COM components, into a chain. These filters each manipulate the data in some way and then pass it down the chain to the next filter. So for example for a typical TiVo file you would have a chain that looks like so...

-> MPEG-2 Video Decoder -> Video Scaler Filter -> Video Output Filter
TiVo Decrypter Filter -> MPEG Demultiplexer
-> AC3 or MP2 Audio Decoder -> TiVo Boost Filter -> Sound Output Filter

For the skip feature to function correctly every single filter in the graph has to support it. Also the MPEG-2 stream has to be consistant enough to allow the MPEG-2 Video Decoder to pick back up without choking. Some video decoders are better then others at recovering from this.

So basically this is a product of the system and there isn't much you can do about it. You might get better results by running the TiVo files through the Quick Stream Fix feature of VideoReDo to repair errors which may cause it to stall. (the most recent beta version support TiVo file input and output) However VRD is $50, so that's another expense.

Dan

[guruweaver]

Thanks for the info.

I'm curious, then, as to why I could skip easily prior to the update but not now? Seems like there should be something mangled in the 'chain' that wasn't mangled before.

This is so frustrating, it's bringing tears to my eyes! It's getting to the point that I just want to re-encode all the files to some other format so I can skip around in them like I want to. It's a darn shame that I simply can't use the software in the way it was intended.

How does one tweak this chain?

Thanks,
Mike

[Dan203]

It's possible that your old MPEG-2 Decoder Filter was better at recovering from errors then the one supplied with the TiVo Plug upgrade. Unfortunately it was also the one responsible for your squished video problem, so it appears that you simply traded one problem for another. :(

As for tweaking the chain... It's not easy. There is a development tool called GraphEdit which will visually show you the chain and allow you to tweak it to your hearts content. However WMP uses a merit system to decide which filters to use, and the only way to get around that is to start uninstalling specific filters or lowering their merit. And in the case of the TiVo Plus upgrade the TiVo Decrypter Filter actually specifically connects itself to certain filters, so the only way to mess with that would be to uninstall the filters that you just paid good money for.

Dan

[guruweaver]

Thank you again for the good information.

Is this a problem that everyone has or am I just special? I find it hard to believe that it is 'broken as designed' in this regard. I assumed, perhaps a bit naively, that the experience I had with TiVo Desktop 2.2 and WMP 9 was the correct experience, as it in many ways mimiced the behavior with the TiVo itself.

I may just try converting my movies to iPod format and playing them in iTunes and see if it works better.

Thanks,
Mike

[guruweaver]

As an interesting data point, I just downloaded and tried The Core Media Player. Amusingly, it works just fine with my .tivo files. It gets the initial aspect ratio wrong, but a simple Alt-6 and it's all better. It fast forwards and rewinds perfectly as well.

It's a problem with Windows Media Player, me thinks.

Mike

[Dan203]

Core Media Player doesn't use DirectShow in the same way as WMP. So it's not confined by it's limitations as much.

Dan